Here, now, is the update (text only) which came with no headline or title, and appears to be a transcript from the Shreveport station's newscast:

A scientist now confirms that the United States military funded research which led to a patent suspected of making so-called "chemtrails" in our skies. In this follow-up report, investigative reporter Jeff Ferrell also discovered a U.S. Air Force manual called "Owning the Weather in 2025," which describes the very same approach.

Ferrell's original report aired on KSLA News 12, the CBS-TV affiliate in Shreveport, Louisiana where he works as a reporter and anchor. The story attracted attention from hundreds of people across the country and Canada. They watched it on YouTube, Google Video and a host of other web sites that posted the story. In turn, those viewers began emailing and calling the station.

While Ferrell immediately began investigating for a follow-up report, the station's interest in the subject waned. So, here's what he found out in his independent research:

The patent describes putting metallic particles like aluminum and barium into jet fuel. Then, exhaust from the jet engine seeds the stratosphere. In turn, those small metallic particles serve a dual purpose by: 1) reflecting incoming light back into space and 2.) helping convert the warmth below into infra-red waves, allowing them to escape from the earth's atmosphere.

"It turned out that it seemed to work and so that's why we had applied for a patent," said patent co-inventor David Chang. Chang confirmed that the U.S. military did fund that research while he worked at Hughes Aircraft, an aerospace giant at the time. It would later downsize considerably and evolve into Direct-TV, which required some of the very same kinds of research and development.

In fact, Chang described several other military-funded projects where jet engine exhaust dispersed metallic particles into the atmosphere. "For instance, we were using it to develop targets for laser range finders," continued Chang.

I then learned about that U.S. Air Force document titled, "Owning the Weather in 2025." it details weather modification for war-fighting and describes putting carbon dust into jet fuel for dispersal as the quote, 'most convenient, safe and cost effective method," just as the Welsbach Patent explained. That method is described on page 15 of the Air Force report, originally written in 1996 as a study paper.

In September of 2002, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell even told a United Nations World Summit in South Africa quote, "we are committed to a billion-dollar program to develop and deploy advanced technologies to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions." Powell never fully elaborated.

And few may remember that the U.S. military used covert weather modification in the past. During the Vietnam War a top secret mission called "Operation Popeye," seeded clouds over the Ho Chi Minh Trail to create floods and wash out the enemy's supply routes. Reporter Jack Anderson is credited with breaking that story back in 1971.

A Discovery Channel program, which first aired in February 2007, investigated so-called Chemtrails, describing them as contrail formations that persist in the skies for hours after a jet passes. But the military refused them access to jet fuel for testing.

"I suspect it may be some sort of weather control," said Stamps, Arkansas resident Bill Nichols in our first report on the subject, which aired on KSLA News 12.

Nichols handed us a mason jar with a sample inside containing water and "other" material collected recently from his back yard. Independent testing at a Shreveport, LA lab did show high levels of barium, a hallmark of other chemtrail testing. Louisiana regulators described such a reading as unusual, but very difficult to prove its source.

Chemtrail skeptics argue barium is used very often commercially for everything from mining to oil drilling. But Chang told me that's 'exactly' why they considered such material safe to use in our skies as a welsbach particle.

But, no one has yet to officially confirm a direct connection between these alleged chemtrails and the U.S. military. Such a discovery is the 'Holy Grail' of chemtrail researchers. Such a revelation, if there is indeed such a covert program in existence at all, would require someone to step forward and potentially risk court martial or legal action. Until then, the guessing and the waiting continue.